by Mark Jeffrey
With a scream he launched himself at the Bondsman.
But at the last second, instead of blasting him, he ripped off the golden mask.
He found himself staring into the stunned face of Sasha Fwa.
Seventeen: Imperial City
“TELL US EVERYTHING you remember,” Max asked Sasha.
They were high up in what used to be the Waldorf Astoria, in a suite with a spacious patio overlooking the street below. The place was called the Bondsman Regency now.
Max Quick, Ian Keating, Sasha Fwa, Casey Cyranus, Jane Willow, Marvin Sparkle, Logan White-Cloud and Cody Chance were all present.
Following the plan they had set out back at Snake Island in the base of the Resistance, the company other than Max, Logan and Sasha had made the several day journey to New York — though it was called Imperial City now. “Bah,” Ian had spat the words as he spoke them when he heard of this: “Imperial City indeed. New York it is — and New York it always will be.”
But now, he cradled Sasha in his arms. He was overwhelmed and delighted beyond belief when she’d walked through the door with Max and Logan. Max had let them talk for about an hour before he deigned to interrupt them. Meanwhile, Max and Logan had brought the company up to speed on what had happened to them in the City-State of the World Emperor.
Sasha was fragile and broken from her experience. It wasn’t helping that they were in New York now, the very location where she had been enslaved by Mafdet under Jadeth’s brief rule: that was also bringing up bad memories.
“I … I don’t know,” Sasha replied, visibly shaken at the thought of recalling her ordeal. Ian held her hand — the one with the slave glyph on it. “All the shooting started at the Bondsman rally …” Sasha glanced at Casey — who looked away, ashamed. “Anyway … we got separated. I was pushed way deep into the crowd, and the people kept pushing … there were just too many people to fight everyone off. Then, I drew my guns. That got everyone’s attention. People backed off — eyes still mad as hell, though, but not willing to rush me. But I don’t have eyes in the back of my head — these guard guys came at me from behind, tackled me to the ground. It felt like there were fifty of them. My guns —“ She looked at Logan, embarrassed. “I lost my guns.” The White Roses had been plucked from her hands. She had seen them bounce away, unceremoniously, completing unbecoming of the terrible and wonderful weapons that they were.
Logan nodded and removed his crushed dusty top hat. “There is no shame. The enemy was overwhelming. It was not your fault, Sasha.”
Sasha acknowledged this and then said: “And then I was kind of moved along the top of the crowd, like rock stars do at concerts. I was body-surfing. Then I was on stage, next to Enki’s body. And then some guys grabbed us and brought us backstage. Then this — this bum came out of nowhere. A homeless guy. And he got right in my face. I was so angry — about Enki, about everything! All this anger … I screamed. And he screamed right back, right in my face. Only … when he screamed, it was like a modem screaming in my face.”
“A … what? Did you say modem?” Ian said, coming out of a reverie now.
“Yeah,” Sasha said, confused. “It … well I guess it didn’t sound like it so much as felt like it. You know, when before wireless, everyone dialed up online with modems … what those sounded like, this felt like.”
“Hmmm,” Marvin Sparkle said. “Like a blast of information.”
“Yes,” Logan said. “Information. A blast of Words.”
“Go on,” Max coaxed.
“Well … that’s it, really,” Sasha said. “The next time I was awake, I was with you and Logan. And dressed up like the Bondsman.”
“Weird,” Casey said.
“You’re telling me,” Sasha said. “You try passing out and waking up as the Bondsman. Not. Fun.”
“But your guns,” Logan said. “You have them now.”
“Yes,” Sasha said.
“But … no one else can touch them, except for you. How did you get them?”
“I … I don’t know.”
“You must have picked them up,” Casey said. “After that bum knocked you out or whatever.”
“Huh. I guess so.”
“There is no other explanation,” Logan said.
“Well, Miss Sasha,” Cody said with a grin — and a big, dopey, lanky arm around Casey. “You are not one easy person to put down. I don’t know how that bum did that to you, but I sure don’t think it could have been easy.”
Sasha gave a half-smile. “Thanks, Cody.”
“What about Enki?” Logan White-Cloud asked suddenly. “You said you were angry about Enki. What happened to him?”
Sasha looked around the room at the expectant eyes. “Oh. You guys don’t know?” Her face sank. “I - I thought they broadcast it on the big screen? No?”
“What?” Max said, insistently.
“Enki is dead,” Sasha said flatly. “The Bondsman killed him.”
Max felt icicles in his ribcage. Killed —! Enki was dead —!
Rage welled up inside of him. He felt like tearing the Bondsman limb from limb …
“You’re sure,” Max gritted, barely containing himself.
Sasha nodded. “I saw it. The Bondsman stabbed him right through the heart — right in front of me.”
Logan White-Cloud hung his head. “Then it is true. The Old One is dead at last.”
“Okay. Forget about Enki for now. But you don’t remember being the Bondsman,” Max pressed. Casey glared at him. Then he said: “I’m sorry, Sash. I know this is hard. But it’s important.”
“No,” Sasha said. “Nothing. Was I really … him?”
Max nodded. So did Logan. “So far as we could tell,” Max said. “There was no difference between the Bondsman down in that vault and the one we saw on stage at the rally.”
“Oh, come off it. Sasha Fwa is not the Bondsman,” Casey said pointedly, looking to Cody for backup. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
At that moment, a man popped out of the thin air right in front of them all.
At once, Casey was on her feet. She drew her Red Roses in one fluid motion.
He was dressed in 1912-like clothes to Max and Ian’s eyes. He stumbled forward, carrying a lit gaslamp. He looked up, startled, and said: “Who are you? What are you doing in my room?”
“Another walk-in,” Logan said. “Everyone relax. I will handle this.”
Logan took the man off into the corner and tried to calm him down. Somehow, Logan was actually managing to do it with his old Indian natural charm. Presently, Logan poured the man a cup of tea and they chatted about the time he had just come from, Logan being familiar with it from firsthand experience.
“What was that?” Ian said after Logan and the man left for the kitchen, somewhat alarmed.
Max explained what had happened with Loric and his family back at Logan’s RV. “And Logan says it’s going to start happening more regularly,” Max finished.
“But why is it happening, exactly?” Ian asked. “Why is the world going all funny?”
“Well. That’s my fault. The world going ‘all funny’ is an articulation of the jumble between times in my mind. I’m an Imaginal, according to Romani. I —“
“Wait — you’ve seen Romani?” Ian said, sitting up straight now.
Max nodded. “She talked to me. So did Doctor Gustav, Faliero and Sambhava.” He did not mentioned Michelle.
“But they’re …”
“Yes. Dead,” Max said. “They said they could bend the rules this one time because the Archons had once bent them with the Whispering Stone. It kind of gave Romani a chip, and so she played it after I blasted my way out of Snake Island the first time around. Anyway, that’s the word she used, Imaginal. That’s what I am. It means my thoughts have a way of manifesting in the real world. And since I’m all jumbled up with all these different times in my memory …”
“That means the world is also getting jumbled up between times,” Ian said. “You’re doing it.”
/> Max nodded. “And I can’t control it.”
“Enki mentioned something about this,” Casey said. “When we were driving to City 29. He said that the Archons wanted to collapse time into a single moment. That was the ultimate goal.”
“That’s what the Bondsman wants,” Max said. “He’s using me to weaken time — again.”
“Max,” Logan White-Cloud said. “You must make an effort to control your thoughts. You must learn the discipline of —”
“I already told you,” Max said firmly, but quietly. “There’s not enough time for that. I can’t master decades of training in an instant. Especially not with this — this flood in my head. It’s like an infernal racket going on all the time. I’ve learned how to not be overwhelmed by it — I haven’t had any more incidents like I did at the pool back at the Shell — but that doesn’t mean it’s gone away. I’m remembering more and more all the time — past lives are coming to the surface.
“And speaking of that … Casey … I owe you the story of how I met Johnny Siren. I remember everything now.”
That caught her off guard. She went white as a sheet.
“And you’re not going to like it,” Max said.
OVER THE COURSE of the next hour, Max told the tale of Giovanni di Cyranus and his time with him in 1503. Casey held Cody’s hand tight through the telling — finding herself actually digging her nails into him at several points, eliciting a yelp of surprise from him each time.
When Max had finished, Casey was emotionally drained. She didn’t even know where to start with questions. But she didn’t meet Max’s eye — she couldn’t now. He had become a different person to Casey. And when she finally rose and nearly ran in to Jane Willow, she looked like she might rap her across the mouth.
“Well,” Casey said curtly, “At least now I know why you decided to trust him after that little Battle Throne war you two had. You’ve been working with him all along.”
“I didn’t know whether he was going to become the Bondsman any more than you did,” Jane said quietly. “I couldn’t have allowed that any more than you could. And he had the chance to kill me — and he didn’t. That was good enough for me.”
“Yeah, well it’s not for me,” Casey said, retreating to a back room.
The rest of them had listened intently as well. Only Logan spoke after Casey had left the room: “Many do not live such long lives as you, Max, or myself and Europa Romani and even Marvin Sparkle here. Those of us who do make bigger mistakes. You cannot let yourself become overwhelmed with guilt. Yes, Casey is angry, and with good reason. But this was five hundred years ago … much was different then. Much is different now.”
Max nodded. He did feel guilty, but from other lives he knew the spiraling mind-trap that came with guilt. He had already let go of his guilt with Johnny Siren. And he understood that for Casey, it was fresh, a new wound acquired only within the past few hours.
MAX WANTED TO be alone after telling the tale, so he also retreated to back room. But soon, he called for Sasha. When Ian tried to accompany her, Max asked that he wait outside: he needed to speak with Sasha alone. Ian nodded and departed.
“Hey,” Sasha said nervously.
“Hey,” Max returned. “Well. Case is not too happy with me right now. I know that. And I know how good friends you two are — especially after all that Arturo Gyp business. But I have to focus on the Bondsman.” Sasha nodded but said nothing. “The way Ian told it back on Snake Island, you’ve actually been possessed once before — I mean before this Bondsman incident. Doctor Bogenbroom. I need to ask you about that. Is that okay?”
“Yes,” Sasha said, clearly steeling herself.
“I need you to be completely honest,” Max said. “No matter what. The truth might matter a lot. And it might hurt to talk about.” Sasha just nodded again. “You don’t remember anything from the time the Bondsman possessed you. I know that. But what about Bogenbroom?”
“Yeah. That was different,” Sasha said, already feeling her skin crawl with the invasive memory. “He was controlling me — but I was still, like, fully awake inside of me. I didn’t black out that time.”
“Like you were a puppet, suddenly,” Max said.
“Yes. Exactly like that. I remember everything clearly — I saw everything that happened, heard everything. I just couldn’t control my body.”
“Bogenbroom was a fully foreign consciousness,” Max said. “And he was in your head. I get that. But he wasn’t in there for very long, right? A few minutes at most?”
“That’s right,” Sasha confirmed.
“Now here’s the question. Did you get the sense that if you’d had enough time, you might have been able to kick him out?”
Sasha thought about this for a moment and then said, “Yes. Yes I think I could have. I don’t think he could have possessed me for long — his hold was kind of weak. I was just — shocked, surprised that could even happen. He mostly caught me off guard. And of course, nothing like that has ever happened to me before.”
“But it has,” Max said. “And here’s the part where I need the honesty. When you were with Jadeth and Mafdet. You felt violated then, didn’t you? Not in control? The details are different of course but …”
“Yes,” Sasha said, hugging herself now and looking away. “Yes. The feeling was the same. Is that what you’re asking?”
Max nodded. “I think … I think you were the most vulnerable person in that room to Bogenbroom. That’s why he jumped into you. It was because you were already familiar with the feeling of not being in control of yourself. He had something he could use. You resonated with it. And I think — forgive me Sasha, I have to try to understand this — I think that was also why the Bondsman was able to possess you later. This Bogenbroom was one thing — but the Bondsman is clearly a lot stronger. He was able to possess you and leave no trace in your memory. But in both cases it was because you already had something in you that they could use, a flame they could fan.”
Sasha’s eyes welled with tears. “So I’m damaged,” she said. “Because I think what you’re saying is right.” And she burst into tears. “That’s it, isn’t it? I’m a mess now, and I’ll never be better again.”
Max reached over and hugged her, which she accepted. “We’re all damaged,” Max said. “Hell, look at me. You think you’re a mess? My mind is ripping down time.” Sasha pulled back and looked him squarely in the eye — and then laughed, rubbing tears away. “I’m literally a timebomb, Sasha, in every sense of the word. Whatever you are … you’re junior varsity compared to me.”
Sasha laughed again and then grew serious. “I’m sorry she picked Cody.”
Max laughed out loud at that. “I’m not. They fit well together. I see why she likes him.”
“You’re … not? I thought you were angry about it?”
“No. I’m not at all,” Max said, truthfully. “She and I aren’t supposed to be together. They are. And besides. I don’t think I would go down so well if she brought me home to meet Dad.”
IT WAS OBVIOUS to Ian that Max’s conversation with Sasha had cemented something inside of him. He was leaning forward on the balls of his feet now when he stood, and there was a new gleam in his eye.
He looked exactly like he did before he attacked the Machine.
“What did you say to him?” Ian asked Sasha.
“Nothing — I mean nothing you don’t know. I told him about Bogenbroom, mostly.”
“That’s it? Nothing else?”
Sasha shook her head. “He seemed to think it was important.”
“Okay,” Max said suddenly, punching an open hand with his fist. “I know what we have to do now. I know where we have to go. The island, the stitch-point. The same one Johnny Siren brought me to with Appius all those years ago.”
“Why there?” Marvin Sparkle asked cautiously.
“Because that’s where the Bondsman is.”
They all sat stunned for a moment. “Max,” Ian said. “I thought he was in the City-State
.”
“He’s not,” Max said. “We were just there. The place is empty, a ghost town.”
“But he wants you to come after him,” Casey said, now in the hallway outside her room. “He wants you to attack him.”
“That’s true,” Max countered. “But Romani told me that’s what I’d have to do in the end. And I know how to beat him now. To do what only I can do, as Romani put it.”
“And what’s that?”
“I can’t tell you,” Max said. “You’re going to have to trust me.”
Casey’s eyes said clearly that she did not trust him.
At that moment, there was a low, but very loud rumble. The sound sank into lower and lower pitches like a depression in pressure. Then there was a crack like thunder and a loud howl outside.
The company rushed to the window and beheld a black mass like a giant shadow baked into reality. Around its edges were something that looked like static or television snow.
Things and people were getting sucked into it.
The debris around it began to whirl like a vortex. This black tornado was ripping apart the cityscape below them.
“That’s me again,” Max said through his teeth. “That vortex. I can feel it. It’s also him, the Bondsman, working through me.”
“The breakdown of reality,” Logan White-Cloud said. “This is a new escalation.” He looked at Max with new concern in his eyes.
“Not really. I mean, it is an escalation but it’s not completely new. It’s part of the same process that’s been going on since we got to this timeline,” Max explained. “It’s just more obvious now, because it’s speeding up. First, there was the Dream — the same awful Dream that everyone here has every single night. The Bondsman’s dream. Everyone here is tied into the same unconscious process through the Bondsman’s influence — and that includes me.
“But it’s not all bad. It’s a two-way street. For instance, people began writing the same song. The Planet Furious kids wrote ‘Modern Lament’ all on their own at the camp. And yet, it had also been written independently by no less than three people I’ve encountered personally. That means there are hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of people writing the same song.”
